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Parry quickest on Day Two in Valencia

Koiranen GP driver on top in GP3 pre-season test in Spain

Koiranen GP’s Matthew Parry posted the quickest time this morning on a wet track at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on the second day of pre-season testing. The Brit’s best lap was 0.064’s faster than ART Grand Prix’s Nirei Fukuzumi. Ferrari Driver Academy and fellow ART GP debutant Charles Leclerc clocked the fastest time in the afternoon session.

Heavy rain had fallen just prior to the session so the 24 drivers were greeted with a wet track and much cooler temperatures at the start of day two. Conditions were fairly tricky at the beginning of the test due to the volume of spray as the grid ventured out on track with their wet Pirelli tyres.

Fukuzumi was the initial pace-setter before Campos Racing’s Steijn Schothorst took control of the timesheet after one hour and thirty minutes as blue skies and sunshine made a welcome appearance. Trident’s Giuliano Alesi went P1 as he was first to dip under the 1m30s bracket.

The lap-times continued to come down in the latter part of the session as the track dried with Parry recording a time of 1:23.549 on slick tyres. Russian Matevos Isaakyan broke into the 1m22s barrier, which was subsequently followed by a short red flag period after his teammate Ralph Boschung stopped on track.

Once the session resumed, positions swapped every few minutes with Trident’s Antonio Fuoco and ART Grand Prix’s Charles Leclerc first to lap in the 1m21s. Parry found some extra pace to go top before Leclerc retaliated and bettered the Brit’s time by two tenths. In the final ten minutes, Fukuzumi demoted teammate Leclerc to second by a mere 0.004s but the action wasn’t over as Parry returned to the top of the timings by 0.064s.

Following the one hour lunch break, Fukuzumi led the way early on before Parry again found some extra pace to leapfrog the Japanese rookie by three tenths. Leclerc lapped a tenth quicker to grab P1, whilst Hughes rose to second in the final half hour.

At the close of the afternoon session Leclerc remained unchallenged in front of Hughes, Parry, Santino Ferrucci, Boschung, Kevin Jörg, Fukuzumi, Alexander Albon, Jake Dennis and Konstantin Tereshchenko.

The third and final pre-season test will held at the Circuit de Catalunya on April 20-21 in Barcelona.

Day Two – morning session

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Matthew Parry

Koiranen GP

1:21.476

41

2.

Nirei Fukuzumi

ART Grand Prix

1:21.560

52

3.

Charles Leclerc

ART Grand Prix

1:21.564

50

4.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:21.598

53

5.

Arthur Janosz

Trident

1:21.673

56

6.

Nyck De Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:21.697

53

7.

Oscar Tunjo

Jenzer Motorsport

1:21.796

48

8.

Antonio Fuoco

Trident

1:21.820

49

9.

Alex Palou

Campos Racing

1:21.989

45

10.

Jake Hughes

DAMS

1:22.016

45

11.

Jack Aitken

Arden International

1:22.041

54

12.

Matevos Isaakyan

Koiranen GP

1:22.056

46

13.

Akash Nandy

Jenzer Motorsport

1:22.088

54

14.

Santino Ferrucci

DAMS

1:22.147

41

15.

Jake Dennis

Arden International

1:22.189

57

16.

Kevin Jörg

DAMS

1:22/203

48

17.

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:22.340

53

18.

Sandy Stuvik

Trident

1:22.340

45

19.

Mahaveer Raghunathan

Koiranen GP

1:22.477

52

20.

Richard Gonda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:22.505

60

21.

Tatiana Calderon

Arden International

1:22.531

49

22.

Steijn Schothorst

Campos Racing

1:22.847

28

23.

Konstantin Tereshchenko

Campos Racing

1:22.850

29

24.

Ralph Boschung

Koiranen GP

1:23.466

28

1.

Charles Leclerc

ART Grand Prix

1:22.089

34

2.

Jake Hughes

DAMS

1:22.166

46

3.

Matthew Parry

Koiranen GP

1:22.195

46

4.

Santino Ferrucci

DAMS

1:22.243

42

5.

Ralph Boschung

Koiranen GP

1:22.366

54

6.

Kevin Jörg

DAMS

1:22.433

38

7.

Nirei Fukuzumi

ART Grand Prix

1:22.500

63

8.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:22.509

49

9.

Jake Dennis

Arden International

1:22.531

47

10.

Konstantin Tereshchenko

Campos Racing

1:22.588

31

11.

Nyck De Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:22.621

64

12.

Artur Janosz

Trident

1:22.627

38

13.

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:22.686

39

14.

Steijn Schothorst

Campos Racing

1:22.725

40

15.

Sandy Stuvik

Trident

1:22.775

46

16.

Alex Palou

Campos Racing

1:22.833

34

17.

Richard Gonda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:22.878

34

18.

Tatiana Calderon

Arden International

1:22.951

38

19.

Antonio Fuoco

Trident

1:23.007

53

20.

Akash Nandy

Jenzer Motorsport

1:23.169

49

21.

Oscar Tunjo

Jenzer Motorsport

1:23.232

45

22.

Mahaveer Raghunathan

Koiranen GP

1:23.505

29

23.

Jack Aitken

Arden International

1:24.961

48

24.

Matevos Isaakyan

Koiranen GP

1:25.078

42

source: GP3 Series

Trident Racing

GP3 Series – PRE SEASON TEST

VALENCIA – 7th & 8th APRIL

CIRCUIT DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA RICARDO TORMO

5 – ANTONIO FUOCO
On the first day we were just focused on aerodynamic tests and so we didn’t get any proper lap time.
We try to run in “not extreme condition” with the morning Team baseline. Lap times were good and the balance of the car just needed some fix. The second day we did some set-up changes in order to understand the wet tyres behaviour. As the track was getting dry Antonio looks extremely fast on fresh tyres and he did his fastest lap at the end of the morning session.
In the afternoon we tried some different set-up solutions to accumulate experience on the car before to swap to race simulation.

I think this has been a positive two-day test. We managed to log a lot of laps and carry-on some really interesting assessments to understand tyre degradation on long runs. The team did a great job, and now we have one week in order to prepare for the next test. Being consistently quick will be key as we look forward to the opening race.

7 – GIULIANO ALESI

As a general over view of the two days, it was a continuation of Giuliano’s development as a young professional race car driver in preparing him for the season ahead.

We worked on his technique in driving the car and carried out qualifying start and race simulation. We also worked on his development in understanding the data and building our working partnership and working with the team.

Best Result: P7 on Day 1 AM

Best Timing on Day1: 1.22.184 – P8 AM & 1.22.620 – P14 PM

Best Timing on Day2: 1.22.340 – P17 AM & 1.22.686 – P13 PM

DRIVER’S QUOTE:

The test went well, better than anyone would have thought. I was closer to the first one than I was at Estoril, I was even P1 at a certain moment. I still need to work on small technical details on my driving. The car is great, the engineers are great, everything is on me now.

6 – ARTUR JANOSZ

For the first day we just carried out our program. Trying a few set-up changes in the morning ending up P1 for the session. In the afternoon we focused on a race simulation. The second day it started wet. The condition were changing fast as the temperatures started to come up. So we tried various set-up changes for this, to gain improvement for the different conditions. At the close before lunch break we ended up P5 for the session. The afternoon again we focused on another race simulation with some changes to the previous day.

We were quite happy with our test over the two days and look forward to the next one to continue our program.

Best Result: P1 on Day 1 AM

Best Timing on Day1: 1.21.755 – P1 AM & 1.22.545 – P12 PM

Best Timing on Day2: 1.21.673 – P5 AM & 1.22.627 – P12 PM

DRIVER’S QUOTE:

Generally it was another good test for me. From the beginning I was competitive in short and long runs. We improved the car that we had in Estoril and I was surprised how fast am I even if I was not driving perfect. Everyone was very close and with small improvement you could gain few places.

During these two days I did a lot of laps and we changed many set-up. I was happy how the car behave during long runs. I’m also happy that we had a chance to drive on the wet track for the first time in this year.

Now I’m preparing myself for the last test in Barcelona and I hope it will be again positive for me.

8 – SANDY STUVIK

The work carried out by the team on Sandy’s car was above all focused on aerodynamic tests, so we didn’t get any proper lap time.

In the afternoon session we started from the team baseline created in the morning. We worked mainly in order to improve driving lines because Sandy likes the balance of the car. Lap times were in line with his team mates and also with the best lap times achieved during the late afternoon.

On the second day we were going around weather conditions for the first two hours trying different aero balance solutions. At the end of the morning session we were able to use new tyres.

We used our last set of new tyres early in the afternoon to be able to simulate race condition in the last hour. In race condition the car looks really good while we didn’t focus so much on balance the car for the single lap time on new tyres.

Best Result: P15 on Day 1 PM

Best Timing on Day1: 1.38.343 – P23 AM & 1.22.632 – P15 PM

Best Timing on Day2: 1.22.340 – P18 AM & 1.22.775 – P15 PM

DRIVER’S QUOTE:

I have some mixed emotions from the Valencia test. We continued to learn more about this car and feel we have a strong race pace and potential quali pace from all the information we have gathered. The Valencia circuit is a bit particular so I was struggling a bit with car balance throughout both days. I feel confident that in Barcelona we will be able to have a very strong car for both quali and race and I’m looking forward to finally testing on a circuit that we will use this season.